US ready to go ahead with nuke deal

Washington, Jul 22: The Bush Administration reaffirmed its support to the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, saying, ''we will do all we can to move forward with it once we hear from the Indians.'' ''This is an important agreement to us and we believe it is an important agreement for India. Indians have to decide whether or not they wish to proceed with this agreement. We have said that we continue to support it, and we will do all we can to move forward with it, once we hear from the Indians,'' State Department's acting Deputy Spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said on Monday, July 21.

Gallegos made this observation when his attention was drawn to Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher's statement as reported by an Indian website. Boucher had said that the Administration intended to go ahead with the nuclear agreement with ''whatever government is in charge in Delhi, even if it is a minority government.'' In reply to another question, Gallegos said, ''my understanding is, there may be a vote (on the confidence motion in Indian parliament) on Tuesday, so I guess we will have to wait and see where we go with this.''

UNI